Thursday, December 15, 2011

How I Came to Be a Foster Mom

I heard about the Beagle Freedom Project's rescue via Facebook.  I've always been interested in pet rescue because I like helping animals and helping pets is really hands on and with tangible results.  I also became aware of the beagle breed because of how good they are with children.  I had always had smaller pets, like Yorkies and Silkys, but they are really too small, in my view, for kids.  Kids need a dog that is closer to their size and activity level.  So I must have "friended" (is that a word?) a group that led me to another group and so on.

I was on FB one morning -- a week or so before Thanksgiving, and lo and behold, I heard the story directly from the Beagle Freedom Project about the need for foster homes for these laboratory pets.  I had considered fostering a rescue pet for a quite a while, because of the stage we are at in our lives, as opposed to making the commitment to become a forever pet parent.  I had been putting off and putting off fostering until I heard about Beagle Freedom Project's amazing rescue of 40 laboratory beagles!

I am guessing I was the first foster application they received.  It's just a hunch but this called my name and I submitted my application as soon as I read the "comment".   Further, I have always been opposed to vivisection (animal testing on live animals) and actually meeting a laboratory animal, in person would be basically full circle for me.

To be able to help, to interact, to love, to help facilitate healing and to help transition them from laboratory test tool to family pet and to help an animal whom had essentially been tortured, was what I was meant to do.  I knew it.

I won't get into the debate on vivisection here but I can assure you, firsthand, that even if a reader supports testing on animals, these animals are trauma victims.  Their behavior indicates they have been tortured, day in and day out.   They have never been given love, seen the sunshine, breathed in fresh air, felt grass beneath their feet and the only touch they have received has been to somehow shackle them in a restraint so as to test on them via poking, prodding, inserting tubes, cutting them, making them inhale substances or inserting drugs into their bodies to test their reactions, making them ingest drano, shampoo, dishwasher soap, etc. 

But here is the first video I saw of the Beagle Freedom Projects second rescue.  It is heartwarming, uplifting and will make you smile and cry--TEARS OF JOY!  Beagle Freedom Project saves innocent lives.

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